News

News Highlights

'Magna Carta Uncovered'

A new book Magna Carta Uncovered was published this month. The authors are Anthony Arlidge QC and the Rt Honourable Lord Judge, Distinguished Visitor in The Dickson Poon School of Law.

2015 marks the 800th anniversary of the grant at Runnymede of Magna Carta. The story of how Magna Carta came into being ,and has been interpreted since, and its impact on individual rights and constitutional developments has more twists and turns than any work of historical fiction.

The authors bring their wide legal experience and forensic skills to uncover the original meaning of the liberties enshrined in Magna Carta, and to trace their development in later centuries up to the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America. By providing that the powers of the King were not unlimited, the Charter was groundbreaking, yet it was also a conservative document, following the form of Anglo-Saxon charters and seeking to return government to the ways of the Norman kings.